A Travel Blog by Katie Chavez
I just can’t figure out why British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast isn’t better known to tourists. It’s blessed with natural beauty in the form of rugged beaches and lush rainforest, the towns are charming, the people are super friendly and welcoming, there is so much to do, and it is within day tripping distance from Vancouver. […] Read more…
Have you ever been somewhere, absolutely loved it, even considered maybe moving there one day, then returned a few years later and thought: meh. That’s how I felt about Victoria, Canada. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the city. There were even things I loved about it. I was just underwhelmed on the whole […] Read more…
My time on Hornby Island should have been different. I envisioned laying on the famous white sand beach and swimming in the clear waters of Tribune Bay. Hiking through the temperate rainforest and enjoying carefree summer days on a beautiful island paradise. Unfortunately my experience there couldn’t have been further from what I imagined. It […] Read more…
I traveled through Canada for five months in 2013 and only spent US$30 per day. It is possible to travel Canada on a budget. Before you ask, no, I didn’t sleep in the streets, sell my body or dumpster dive for food. I ate pretty well (most of the time), we always had a roof (or […] Read more…
Coming from the North Island of New Zealand, I grew up without knowing the captivation of the magical season known as fall in North America. A season that transforms parts of the US and Canada into a multi-hued, sanguine wonderland. Sure, we still had autumn with the trees shedding their leaves, the temperature dropping in […] Read more…
As you probably know, I am kinda in love with Vancouver so it was only fitting to end our Americas trip in one of our favourite cities in the world. Originally we were going to be spending a few nights in Victoria and were only going back to Vancouver to catch our flight, but as […] Read more…
Volunteering on Denman Island only became part of our plans at the last minute because of our bad experience at Osoyoos. It is funny how the unplanned parts of your travels, and in life in general, can sometimes turn out to be the most satisfying. After arriving by ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo on Vancouver […] Read more…
After how well our first experience with Help X went, we weren’t as nervous about starting our second placement which was two weeks working on a vineyard/farm in Osoyoos. But if we knew what a Help X nightmare we were about to endure, we would have hightailed it back to Vancouver straight away. Osoyoos is […] Read more…
After a stressful time on Greyhound buses involving late arrivals, rude bus drivers and an almost missed connection, we finally arrived in Chase, the closest town to the HI Squilax Hostel and General Store where we would be volunteering for two weeks. Trav and I signed up to a couple of websites, Workaway and Help X, […] Read more…
Our Rocky Mountain Road Trip didn’t start out with a bang. Sixteen hours on a Greyhound is not anyone’s idea of fun, certainly not ours. I think the fact that they made us change buses and wait around for an hour at midnight was what made it even less fun than we expected it to […] Read more…